Here are some resources you can use in professional development. We also recommend that you use NICHCY's state resource sheets as a starting place to enter the EI system in your state and see what training modules or other training materials may be online for professional development purposes (see discussion above about state resources, under the section "IFSP".) There are quite a few. Even those from other states can be useful in developing staff knowledge and competencies.

• Selected early childhood/early intervention training materials.
  www.fpg.unc.edu/~scpp/pdfs/rguide.pdf
  Walking the Walk: A Guide to Diversity Resources for Trainers is an annotated listing of high quality videotapes, books, curricula, and other materials that can be used to assist in growing a more diverse and better prepared workforce to serve infants, toddlers, children and families who are culturally and linguistically diverse.
  
  
• Assistive technology: Training staff and families.
  http://asu.edu/clas/tnt/appendix/ATtrainingbrief2-8-05.pdf
  Find out how in Assistive Technology Training for Providers & Families of Children in Early Intervention, courtesy of Tots 'n Tech Research Institute (TnT). And while you're there, you may want to read Evidence Based Practice in Assistive Technology, available online at:
  http://asu.edu/clas/tnt/appendix/EBPBrieffinal9-28-04.pdf
  
  
• Diversity on your staff, diversity in the families you serve.
  www.fpg.unc.edu/~walkingthewalk/pdfs/WTW_guide.pdf
  Walking the Walk: A Guide to Diversity Resources for Trainers is an annotated listing of high quality videotapes, books, curricula, and other materials that can be used to assist in growing a more diverse and better prepared workforce to serve infants, toddlers, children and families who are culturally and linguistically diverse.
  
  
• Hook up with others in your shoes at the Early Childhood Education online.
  www.umaine.edu/eceol/
  The Early Childhood Education On Line Web site exists to promote and facilitate information management and exchange, and to serve as a resource and benefit for all children, their families, and all people who help them grow and learn. There, you'll find a listserv, a Treasure Hunt that functions as a Internet training exercise for Early Childhood educators, and a host of resources and connections across the spectrum of early childhood work.
  
  
• And here's another community online.
  www.atsweb.neu.edu/cp/ei/index.html
  The Global Early Intervention Network (GEIN) is an online informational resource and discussion community. It's dedicated to helping parents, service providers, students, faculty and others learn more about early intervention.
  
  
• Wanna join OSEP's Community of Practice for "Settings Part C Community?"
  www.tacommunities.org/ev_en.php?ID=1029_201&ID2=DO_COMMUNITY
  The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has formed several communities of practice (CoP) to improve implementation of IDEA. This one focuses on Part C settings. The welcome screen says, "Enhancing Services in Natural Environments/ Part C Settings: PEOPLE-- CONVERSATIONS-- CONTENT-- GET INVOLVED!"
  
  
• Designing an effective TA system to pass the word through your network.
  www.nectac.org/pubs/titlelist.asp#design
  NECTAC offers a three-part workbook that's intended to serve as a planning resource for state officials to help them think strategically about their technical assistance (TA) systems---how to design it, how to use it to improve capacity throughout the system. For the small cost of $5.00...read what you'll get at the link above.
  
  
• Staff development, as a stand-alone topic.
  www.nichcy.org/enews/foundations/stafftraining.asp
  Visit NICHCY's eNews Foundations page on "Effective Practices and Resources in Staff Development" for an indepth exploration of this critical topic.
  
  
• Dealing with specific disabilities.
  While professional practice guidelines are generally available within the individual professional disciplines (e.g., speech-language pathology, mobility and orientation, hearing habilitation), here are some resources you might find useful for working with children (or parents) who have specific disabilities.
  
  
• Cerebral palsy.
  www.ucp.org/ucp_generalsub.cfm/1/4/24
  The UCP Research and Educational Foundation produces Research Fact Sheets to inform professionals and the public about recent research findings, about the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of cerebral palsy and related developmental disabilities.
  
  
• Down syndrome.
  www.riverbendds.org/eieffective.html
  The link above will take you to one chapter online from a 1997 Paul H. Brookes book about the effectiveness of early intervention. This chapter focuses on the effectiveness of EI with children who have Down syndrome and describes in detail a number of interventions and their impact upon cognitive development, language and communication, parent-child interactions, and motor and physical development.
  
  
• Down syndrome and speech-language treatment.
  www.ds-health.com/speech.htm
  Here's another chapter from a 1998 book, this one called Down Syndrome: A Promising Future, Together, which appears online with permission of Wiley-Liss, Inc., a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Title of the chapter? "Comprehensive Speech and Language Treatment for Infants, Toddlers, and Children with Down Syndrome." More articles can be accessed via the home page (www.ds-health.com/), including "Why Physical Therapy?" and "Occupational Therapy and DS."
  
  
• Epilepsy.
  http://professionals.epilepsy.com/homepage/index.html
  The epilepsy.com/professionals Resource Library is an online epilepsy resource offering a comprehensive library of materials available for download that will help healthcare professionals better help those living with epilepsy. Find articles such as "Giving Medicine to Infants and Toddlers," "Classification of Epilepsies & Epilepsy Syndromes," and "First Aid for Seizures."
  
  
• Fragile X syndrome.
  www.fpg.unc.edu/~ncedl/PDFs/ED8_2.pdf
  Summer 2004, Volume 8, #2, of Early Developments, from the National Center for Early Development & Learning at the FPG Child Development Institute.
  
  
• Hearing impairments: Online training for EI professionals.
  http://center.uncg.edu/index.asp
  CENTe-R stands for Collaborative Early Intervention National Training e-Resource. CENTe-R's mission is to inform and support graduate-level professionals serving families with infants and toddlers who are deaf/hard of hearing through web-based training that embraces transdisciplinary approaches and connections among ongoing learners.
  
  
• Motor skill impairments and interventions.
  www.clas.uiuc.edu/techreport/tech1.html
  "Culturally and Linguistically Sensitive Practices in Motor Skills Intervention for Young Children," from CLAS.
  
  
• Visual impairment: Training modules online.
  http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~edin/
  The Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers with Visual Impairments offers multimedia training modules that provide the basic knowledge and skills required to work with young children with visual impairments. Training modules at present include the following topics: Family-Centered Practices; Visual Conditions and Functional Vision: Early Intervention Issues; Communication and Emergent Literacy; Developmentally Appropriate Orientation and Mobility; and Assessment.
  
  
• More on visual impairment.
  www.clas.uiuc.edu/techreport/tech7.html
  From CLAS, "Visual Impairment In Young Children: A Review Of The Literature With Implications For Working With Families Of Diverse Cultural And Linguistic Backgrounds."
  
  
• For more on specific disabilities, don't forget NICHCY's info.
  We didn't mention the disability you're concerned with? We DID mention it, but you need more? Try these two places on our site, which will help you identify organizations on specific disabilities who offer indepth knowledge about the disability in question.
  

  Disability fact sheets.
  www.nichcy.org/disabinf.asp
  
  "Search for Info" page.
  www.nichcy.org/search.htm
  

• Still looking for info?
  www.brookespublishing.com/dictionary/index.htm
  Try Paul H. Brookes Publishing's online and searchable dictionary of disabilities. Enter your search term and get back definitions of disabilities, related disability organizations, medical terms, and more.